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Getting down to business in downtown Hillsboro: Guest opinion

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Though visitors to Saturday Market can find wheat-free goods from vendors like Lindsay Wills, downtown Hillsboro lacks restaurants that can draw people downtown for breakfast or dinner.
(Hillsboro Argus/2012)

I love our quaint Hillsboro downtown. I love our locally owned shops and our seasonal events. However, on a daily basis, our downtown is lacking something – traffic, two-way traffic perhaps, but mostly foot traffic. Whenever I’m downtown, I rarely share the same sidewalk with more than a few pedestrians, and that concerns me.

Not enough people come downtown to stroll, shop or see what’s going on, especially at night or on the weekends -- at least, not enough people do.

I will admit that even though I’m a staunch supporter of locally run businesses, and I disagree a bit with the consultant who advised shop owners against a "buy local" campaign, I don’t spend much time hanging out perusing businesses just for the fun of it. Why? Because our downtown does not stimulate any of my senses – it doesn’t entice me to walk, eat, drink or explore.

When I shop downtown, it’s for a specific item and purpose; toys at Let’s Play, books at Jacobsen’s, and most recently paint at B Designs Home Décor. These shops, and others as well, are all run by merchants who care about their customers and their community. They have a stake in a successful downtown environment.

So, what can the city do to help make it more enticing and thus more successful for these dedicated shop owners?

A two-way grid might make a difference in the traffic flow, and it could make it easier for people coming from other areas to navigate in downtown Hillsboro, but we need more. We need more restaurants, independent coffee shops, perhaps a distillery, and tops on my list would be a couple of really excellent breakfast eateries or a bakery. If you feed us and quench our thirst, we will come!

Besides food and drink, we need to get behind our local arts community and support and encourage this vital and dedicated community. I would love to see city officials become passionate patrons of the arts, attend a variety of performances, and be vocal supporters of the juicy arts scene that is ripe for discovery by more Hillsboro residents.

We have a long history of community theater with HART (Hillsboro Artists’ Regional Theatre) located on the Washington Street side of the civic center complex. HART Theatre lends space to other community theatre groups like STAGES Performing Arts Youth Academy, and LESTA (Learning English/Spanish Through the Arts) as well. The city should encourage, showcase and support this venue and others that bring audiences downtown to see live performances.

Argus Community Writers

The Community Writers program offers a platform to Hillsboro-area residents who care deeply about issues and trends that affect life in western Washington County.

Through guest columns on topics of their own choosing, Community Writers seek to expand the online conversation about matters of local concern.

We are also very lucky to have our own local professional theatre group in Bag&Baggage, and yet after an evening of theatre, there are precious few reasons to stay downtown for a beverage or dessert, or to listen to live music.

Our streets simply cannot go to sleep before most toddlers do if we want a lively downtown. If we want to encourage our youth to spend time downtown, we have to give them a place to go for a purpose. Surely there are some great entertainment and recreation possibilities that would attract the under-21 crowd into the downtown core. Ping Pong, anyone?

What will it take to revitalize our downtown and make it vibrant? Two-way traffic may be helpful, and there is talk of using Gain Share money to make this happen, but we still need to give people a good reason to stop as they drive down either side of the road. Our focus and funding should be on attracting new, and supporting all of the businesses to draw the necessary traffic.

As the saying goes, if you don’t know where you’re going or why, you won’t ever get there. If Hillsboro doesn’t give folks a compelling where or why, they will pass us by in both directions.

Tammy Ellingson is a freelance writer and substitute teacher who lives in Hillsboro.